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Chinese renaissance architecture is an aesthetic created by a group of primarily American-trained, first-generation Chinese architects who formed a movement for the rejuvenation of Chinese architecture in modern China. The architectural movement is set within the framework of renewed national pride and consciousness in a newly established Republican China (officially, the Republic of China, which lasted from 1911 to 1949) after over half a century of humiliation by western imperialism.

The movement was initiated in the 1920s and vigorously developed throughout the 1930s before it was dampened by the Japanese invasion and occupation of China (1937–1945). Doon Dayu (1899–1975), a 1927 graduate of Columbia University, wrote in a 1936 article in the English-language T’ien Hsia Monthly (published from 1935 to 1941): ‘A group of young students went to America and Europe to study the fundamentals of architecture. They came back to China filled with ambition to create something new and worthwhile. They initiated a great movement, a movement to bring back a dead architecture to life: in other words, to do away with poor imitations of western architecture and to make Chinese architecture truly national’ (Doon, 1936).

The story of this architectural development starts in the late 1920s, when the first architects from the Chinese Republic returned home after graduating from the architectural schools of elite American universities such as Cornell, Illinois, Michigan, MIT and Pennsylvania. Motivated by intense nationalism, the young architects aimed to modernise a Chinese society that was mired in its imperial past. The means to do so was through western rationalism and scientific methods embedded in the study of architecture at western universities. However, these vanguard students would soon discover the contradiction of being modern and Chinese at the same time. Tony Atkin (2011) writes: ‘Although their coursework and studios involved the rigorous study of western accomplishments in architecture, most of them struggled with the idea of how to be modern (usually equated with western ideas) and still be Chinese.’

The famous Chinese reformist and educator Liang Chi-chao (1874–1929) believed that the contradiction could be reconciled ‘through a deep understanding of ancient Chinese history and Confucian philosophy, and their reintegration into modern life, much in the way that the Italian renaissance was built on the restoration of ancient Greek and Roman culture, art, and humanism.’ Liang happened to be the father of one of these first-generation American-trained Chinese architects – Liang Ssu-cheng (1901–1972), a 1928 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and arguably the most renowned member of China’s first-generation architects and architectural educators. As a leading academic, the younger Liang contributed significantly to the movement through his rediscovery of classical Chinese architectural rules, especially those relating to proportions and aesthetics, and through his promotion of the use of these rules with modern (western) architectural construction.

Some of the more striking examples can be found in the former capitalcity of Nanjing, such as the Officer’s Club (1931) and the Ministry of RailwaysBuilding (1933), and in the pre-war cosmopolitan city of Shanghai, such as the Municipal GovernmentBuilding (1933), Municipal Stadium (1934), Municipal Museum (1935) and Municipal Library (1936). Almost all of these examples were converted to other uses after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Since Chinese renaissance architecture was an integral part of the national rejuvenation political ideology of the Kuomintang (the ruling nationalist party of Republican China), it is not surprising that the movement was purged by the communist regime after it assumed power in 1949. However, the distinctive architecture continued to be built on the island of Taiwan, where the defeated Kuomintang regime had retreated and remained in power.

A series of buildings important to the Kuomintang regime in Taiwan was built in the capitalcity of Taipei, using the language of Chinese renaissance architecture: the National Museum of History (1960), National Palace Museum (1965), Grand Hotel (1973), National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (1980), National Theatre (1987) and National Concert Hall (1987).

Architectural design in the British colony of Hong Kong was influenced by Chinese renaissance architecture during the 1930s, at the height of the movement. The aesthetic character of Chinese renaissance architecture, in particular, appealed to Christian institutions. Distinguished examples (all of which are graded historic buildings) include the Tao Fung Shan Christian Centre (1930), Holy Spirit Seminary (1931), Chinese Methodist Church (1932, demolished in 1994), Holy Trinity Church (1937, now Holy Trinity Cathedral) and St Mary’s Church (1937).

The nationalistic ideology of Chinese renaissance architecture appealed to the elite class of the local Chinese population, who saw the style as a means of asserting their ethnic identity in the British colony. The result is a small number of significant examples, including Ho Tung Gardens (1927, demolished in 2013), Haw Par Mansion (1935, a Grade 1 historic building), former residence of General Ting-Kai Tral (1936, now the Morrison Building, a declared monument) and King Yin Lei (1937, a declared monument).

After the second world war there was even less interest in Chinese renaissance architecture in a rapidly modernising Hong Kong. At the same time, some of the main proponents of the movement from mainland China moved to the British colony. In adjusting to the new political reality, they too abandoned Chinese renaissance architecture and adopted the language of modernism.

[The gateway of the Tang Chi Ngong School of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong (1931) (Photo: Lsoadrimak at Wikimedia Commons, used under attribute-share licensing)]

Chinese renaissance architecture reflected the quest of China’s first-generation, western-trained architects for a fitting architectural identity for the new China. As Dayu Doon (1936) wrote: ‘The architect must express and country.’ Chinese renaissance architecture reflects himself in the language of his own times. Only thus will the zeitgeist of Republican China, but its nationalistic the architect be able to produce buildings that will truly ideology became its Achilles heel as mainland China reflect the hopes, the needs, and the aspirations of his age moved to a new political reality after 1949.

References and further reading:

Atkin, Tony (2011) ‘Chinese architecture students at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1920s: tradition, exchange, and the search for modernity’ in Cody, Jeffery, et al, (eds) Chinese Architecture and the Beaux-

Arts, University of Hawaii

Press/Hong Kong University

Press, Honolulu/Hong Kong

Doon, Dayu (1936)

‘Architectural Chronicle’, T’ien Hsia Monthly, Vol 3, No 4, republished in the online China Heritage Quarterly, June 2010, China HeritageProject, Australian National University

Mainland architects in Hong Kong after 1949: a parallel history of modern architecture in China, PhD thesis, University of Hong Kong.

Ho-Yin Lee is associate professor and the head of division of architectural conservationprogrammes at the University of Hong Kong. Lynne DiStefano is adjunct professor and academic advisor in the same division.

The 2019 STBA-SPAB Conference & Expo will look at the current situation of regulations and initiatives, as well as the skills training that enable our built environment to include a wealth of healthy buildings with heritage and aesthetic value.

The former Fisons warehouse in Bramford, near Ipswich, was the victim on another fire affecting our heritage. Listed Grade II and dating back to 1858 the building was destroyed by a fire thought to be arson.